Friends

First appearance

Portrayer

Brick Ishmail Heck (Born November 3rd, 2001) is the youngest child of Frankie and Mike Heck, who loves to read and has quirks or habits of whispering to himself. This happens when certain words catch his ear and he wants to hear them again, quieter. He is exceptionally smart, but is easily tired, leading him to procrastinate on – or just forget – his homework assignments and projects. He has Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI, for short. Brick and the actor both have OI type IV.) He tends to isolate himself from classmates. He acquired a certain tick where he shouts "Whoop!" in Bunny Therapy. Apparently he whoops when he lies as shown in The Hose. His parents Frankie and Mike call this "whooping". Many of his quirks are similar to people with high functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome. This may include Brick's obsession with reading, unusual speech patterns, and difficulty fitting in with his peer group. In a few episodes, Brick was known to have an obscure interest in fonts and he has even created a blog based on fonts in one episode. The social skills group is similar therapy for people on the autistic spectrum. He is portrayed by Atticus Shaffer. Brick's strangeness results in his parents, Frankie and Mike Heck, having to attend the annual talk with Brick's teacher. Frankie and Mike also have to attend his social group classes. In these situations, Frankie and Mike try to explain that Brick is not special or weird but in the end Frankie usually admits that he is special.

He always remember things he reads, such as how to repair a lawn-mower in The Block Party, due to having a eidetic memory. He is very awkward, and doesn't have many friends, but makes friends with a equally awkward boy called Arlo, but struggles to deal with him. Brick is also a brilliant speller and almost won the regionals but was disqualified by a strict judge when he whispered the last letter to himself. However, in his second year of the competition, he was eliminated in the first round of his local school competition by misspelling "Reindeer", with the classic mistake of spelling "Reindear".

Frankie and Mike are always trying to solve more important things than poor Brick. Mike and Frankie both have to attend a meeting with Brick's teacher every year about his quirkiness and attend his social group's meetings. Brick basically reads his life away and Mike and Brick never get to bond. Mike got Brick into football by having him read up on facts and find his favorite 3-syllable words. Brick began to like football and know tons of facts and Mike told him that if he can talk sports than he can talk to any guy in the world. Mike and Brick watching football made Axl jealous. When Mike had his buddies from the quarry over to watch the game, Brick talked too much and made them leave one by one. When Brick used his Father's Day coupons he made for Mike he bothered Mike his whole vacation until Mike told Brick to leave him alone.

Axl Heck is generally a terrible older brother towards Brick by being mentioned to do things like fart on his face or anything else.

Sue Heck and Brick have a good bond when they have to help each other such as figuring out how to cover up the hole in Sue's wall twice, or Sue trying to sound like Frankie on the phone calling Kevin's parents to say that Brick can't attend his son's birthday party which she constantly messes up at.

When Axl and Sue fight in church and Mike accidentally whips a book at an old lady's head aiming for Axl, they were called in to have a talk with the new reverend who says that he can have one on ones with people. Just about ready to go Brick admits that he feels invisible which leads for Brick to also have a one on one. Reverend brings them back in and when Brick's supposed to tell them what he told him he claims he would rather have wintergreen toothpaste which the family agrees to do. On top of that they were starving and ready to go out to eat at King Arthur's. Almost always innocent Sue admits that she got drunk and she twerked at a party which led to Sue having a one on one with the reverend. Frankie pulls a peppermint out of her purse when Brick asks aren't the parents supposed to sacrifice for their kids. Frankie slides it across the floor and Brick tries it and hates it and Frankie states that it's wintergreen. Brick realizes he doesn't like wintergreen. Frankie and Mike argue and they have a two on one.

Trivia

His favorite color is yellow.

His favorite food is Doughnut Holes. (As mentioned by Sue in ''The Bee'')

In The Telling, it is revealed that for many years Brick has been the family's snitch. In exchange for information about Axl and Sue, Frankie's been rewarding him with candy cigarettes.

He loves words with three syllables.

It appears that Brick has a compulsive need to participate in various school events and extra tasks (another explanation might be lack of assertiveness). However, due to his short-lived enthusiasm, he's never able to finish them, which always ends with Frankie doing it for him.

It's mentioned that Frankie and Mike did not mean to have him and therefore called him, "Oops," until he was three.

Extreme amounts of sugar make Brick act and seem normal.

In Bunny Therapy, Brick has stated that he must say "The Pledge of Allegiance" 20 times before he goes to bed.

In A Birthday Story, it is revealed that when he was a newborn, Brick was accidentally taken home by the Fergusons for a month because Mike was so distracted by a football game he wheeled the wrong baby out of the nursery.

He likes Lime green jello in salad revealed in Thanksgiving V.

His favorite book series is Planet Nowhere.

When he lied, he used to whisper, "I'm lying" but now, he has a smellier tic.

One of his favorite things are fonts. He even ran a short-lived podcast on them.

In Year of the Hecks, it is revealed that Brick rolls up his pajama bottoms because he's afraid he will trip in his dreams.

He has a pathological fear of riding over the covered-over bridge near his house, somehow escaping the car after every approach, so that his parents have to take the long way home around it.